Colin Gibson Blog

2012-01-27T17:59:00.000Z

This article should appear in next week's advertiser. Let me know what you think of it.

Happiness…

What were your highlights of 2011? For me, it wasthe fabulous children's events up at St Matthew's. We had an amazing holidayclub with 75 kids noisily enjoying themselves… fabulous fun at Messy Church…joyful celebrations at Blue Coat Sunday… deeply touching nativity plays… ourkids are funny, inspiring and full of life.

Yet as adults there is something poignant in thehappiness of children. As we get older we discover how much pain relationshipscan bring. People let us down… people we care about suffer… people die andleave us grieving… We fear for our children because one day they too will becast out of the garden of innocence. We wish we could protect them from thebittersweet fruit of this knowledge.

Jesus said some odd things about happiness. Youcan find them in the Sermon on the Mount. They're often written as"Blessed are the poor in spirit" etc, but in the original language Hejust meant "happy". So – "Happy are those who mourn"?"Happy are those who hunger and thirst for justice"? "Happy areyou when people give you a hard time?" So you're happy when you're nothappy? What is He saying?

It doesn't make sense without God. Those who mourncan be happy because God can bring comfort: He brought life out of death in theresurrection of Jesus. He can fill us when we are empty and accept us whenothers reject. This is happiness stronger than sorrow, stronger than death.When everything else goes, God's love is still there for us.

It's all about relationships. In Jesus, God healsour relationship with Him, so that the love can flow once more. Perhaps"Blessed" is better after all: we can be happy, not because we findhappiness in this or that, but because God blesses us.

Happiness… We're all searching for it. Sometimesit seems ever further away in today's society. Material things, success,celebrity culture – they are not enough to satisfy our souls. May you find thehappiness you are searching for in 2012. Keep looking and don't give up! It'sout there. But I suspect you're more likely to find it when you look in theplace God put it – in Jesus His Son.

Happy New Year from everyone at St Matthew's!

2012-01-08T17:29:00.002Z

Message for 2012

Dear member of St Matthew's

Jesus never told us to Go and make converts of every nation – good as it is to be a convert.He didn't say Go and make churchgoers,nor Go and make Christians – though it'sgood to be a Christian and a churchgoer too. No, Jesus said, Go and make disciples.

But what is a disciple? They weren't unique to Jesus. Inthe Bible, John the Baptist also had disciples, for example. So did other distinguishedJewish teachers, or rabbis. And so did the philosophers of the Greek-speakingcivilisation of Jesus' day. These disciples all sought, not merely to hear whattheir teachers had to say, but to learn how they lived. Above all they wantedto be like their teachers because their teachers' wisdom should be earthed in theway they lived from day to day. For this reason disciples would follow theirteachers everywhere – according to some sources, even to the loo and under themarriage bed! They did this so they could copy the ones they followed and growto be more like them.

So a disciple is someone who tries to spend as much timeas possible with their master, in order to learn from their master how to growto be more like their master. What a great ambition for a Christian – to growto be more like our Master, Jesus! Did you know that is God's plan for you?According to Romans 8:29, God has "predestined us to be conformed to thelikeness of His Son."

That is why I want 2012 to be a Year of Discipleship for St Matthew's. We have quite a few newpeople in church. What are we doing to help them grow to be more like Jesus? Havewe got more to offer them than forever recycling them back to Alpha? Are therepeople who've been around a bit longer and who perhaps have lowered theirexpectations and stopped growing? Unless the church is making disciples then itis not doing what Jesus told us to do.

Here are a few things currently in the pipeline for ourdiscipleship agenda:

· we're running with the theme of discipleship inour January teaching programme.

· there's a gifts course over two evenings on 25 Janand 1 Feb. This will help you discover what gifts God has given you and what Heis calling you to do in His service – a key part of being a disciple.

· our Lent course, Moving On, runs on Wednesdays from29 Feb to 4 April and is designed to help us with first steps in discipleship.

· in October we have weekend away together booked.This will be a great time of fun and friendship and also help us with ourspiritual growth as disciples.

· Join a home group or cell group – this is wherewe can support and encourage each other in the nitty gritty of living out aJesus lifestyle.

Discipleship isn't just about hard work and duty. Let'senjoy getting to know Jesus better, let's learn together through our mistakesand weaknesses, just as Peter and the other disciples did in the Bible. Let'sbe new, different people at the end of2012 compared to what we are now at its beginning. There's an adventure instore for us!

With my love and prayers for the coming year,

Colin

2012-01-08T16:41:00.002Z

Permission granted!

St Matthew's seems to have quite a buzz about it at themoment. Here's why I am in good heart as we stand at the start of 2012,wondering what may lie ahead:

· Things are really taking off with our familiesand children! Liz Burley our new worker launched Messy Church just over a yearago, loads of people are coming and there's always a great atmosphere.Children's Church is growing on Sunday mornings and we had an amazing holidayclub last summer (another to follow this year).

· We now have a youth worker, Lee, for the firsttime for years. Lee has launched Youth Church on Sunday mornings and has gotinvolved with Blue Coat school. He has linked up with the Faithworks team whoare working with young people across Walsall. The new night café is attracting30 or so young people with no church roots to the St Matthew's Centre everyFriday night and is still growing.

· The young people of Church Hill Praise continueto inspire me with their fire and passion! They fill me with hope for thefuture.

· We've had a great Alpha Course with over 40participants, thanks in no small measure to our curate Liz, who organised it.She has been breath of fresh air.

· St Matthew's Centre is booming under theleadership of manager Adrian Perks. There seem to be more and more communityusers in there all the time (and even two or three other churches who hire ourpremises)

· Our Asian congregation are in good heart too –their local radio broadcasts are great!

· I particularly feel this when I see our memberssupporting , helping and caring for each other because then I know that theGospel is being lived out among us.

So I think, by thegrace of God, we are an inspiring community to belong to. The question thatbothers me is, what holds others back from joining in? It has surprised me todiscover that many people feel they need permission to come to church. Severaltimes lately I have been asked, "am I allowed to come to church?"Sometimes it's because the building seems so imposing, sometimes because peopledon't know what goes on in there and are worried they won't fit in, sometimesbecause they weren't baptised, sometimes because a vicar has been unhelpful oreven rude to them in the past… But whatever the reason, it's not good enough.Because the heart of the Gospel is that Jesus welcomes everyone – especiallysinners. He said, "Whoever comes to me, I will never send away" (John6:37). So you are all allowed, by express permission of the King of kings!

Why not give St Matt's a try in 2012?

2011-11-28T19:28:00.001Z

There is nogreater love…

I wonder who or what you think about during thattwo minutes' silence on Remembrance Sunday? I always think of my grandfather,Albert Taylor. Grandad was born into a very poor family. They were farmlabourers in Norfolk with lots of kids. To survive, my grandad learned to liveoff the land. He knew which leaves and wild roots you could eat, and if therewas a pheasant or partridge anywhere in the landscape, he knew it was there.Ray Mears had nothing on him!

When he was only 16 Albert signed up to fight inWW1. At the Battle of Cambrai, after initial British success, a Germancounter-offensive broke through. A small detachment was thrown forward to slowdown the enemy so the rest of the troops could pull back to safety. This was calleda sacrifice party – they put their lives on the line so their comrades could besaved. Only my grandad and one or two others from that party of over a hundred survived.Everyone else was killed.
Albert was taken prisoner and endured conditionsof great hardship. Eventually he escaped, living off the land as he knew sowell to do, moving by night and hiding up by day. He made his way to neutral Hollandwhere he was interned as a combatant for the rest of the war.

A sacrifice party… sacrifice is a universal humanpractice. The Old Testament Hebrews sacrificed, as did the surrounding pagans andclassical Greece and Rome. There were the ghastly human sacrifices of theAztecs, but lest we think we are any better there were the mysterioussacrifices of the bog people in Europe. In China ritual sacrifices of burnedpaper objects are made to ancestors. Animists still offer sacrifices to placateangry gods and demons. Muslims have just been sacrificing a sheep or goat atEid.

Sacrifice is still alive in modern secular life.Athletes sacrifice a normal life to train, volunteers sacrifice their comfortsto the poor, leaders sacrifice their private lives for their goals… Has anyworthwhile thing ever been achieved without sacrifice? Closer to home, newlyweds sacrifice personal freedoms to adapt to their partner, parents sacrificetime, effort and money to bring up their kids, carers give up job prospects forthose they love. A world where no-one made sacrifices for others would be adiminished world full of petty people. Sacrifice is everywhere! Why?

Christians believe it is because that is the wayGod is. "God is love," says the Bible. Then it tells us that His loveis supremely demonstrated in the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the Cross. Godis the kind of God who sacrifices Himself for those He loves – and He has madeus in His image. No wonder sacrifice appeals to us, inspires us and moves us.

In 1917 my grandad Albert laid his life on the line so that his comrades could be saved. And on the night before He died, Jesus said, "Greater love has no-one than this, to lay down his life for his friends." By giving His life for you, He calls you friend. Do you know what that friendship means?

2011-11-19T17:47:00.000Z

It's really exciting to have just published some poems with The Five! Our new book, Five Squared, is available at £12.50 from www.lulu.com. It's called Five Squared because it has 5 x 5 poems, each of us has contributed five.

Here's one of mine as a taster, hope you like it!

A rose garden

So I planted the garden for you.

To guard it, a hedge of sweetmyrtle,

Within it, lily of the valley,rue and rose

To keep me scented of you tillyou come.

All through it of course theremust flow

A stream of limpid water,

Running and singing and shining

From a broken jar of clay.

And come at last you do – but whymust you

Ignore my gate, break down myhedge

And trample my flowers?

Why could you not linger

on the lawn I laid for you,

but must go straight ahead

(my hedge again!), leaving only

an irresistible scent, and the

faint echo of a call?

So I followed in your steps, thatled

After many days to a high ruggedhill

And a torrent that thundered

With the sound of many waters.

Far away and small my shatteredgarden.

It seemed you had a wider fieldto walk,

Immersing me into a deeperstream.

And at the summit, you at last,

Plainly waiting for me. “Lie downhere.

Gaze into heaven till it becomesa sea,

Until the tall trees reach downas roots into the deep

And the eagles swim an abyss oflight

And you too play in love’sempyrean.”

So I awoke – and you were notthere.

Only the footsteps leading down.

Grumbling and longing I follow –

Don’t you know how hard you makeit?

Down into a valley and a dourcity

And a pressing, depressing crowd.

And is it true that here at lastI will find you

Among the disappointed andaverted faces

And the wandering uncertain steps

And the least of these mybrethren?

And your long unfathomable lookfor which I long

Must be looked out of my ownshrinking eyes?

Arrogant? Moi?

2011-11-13T19:30:00.001Z

Ouch! It was a bit of a downer to read in The Times recently that Rowan Atkinson thinks vicars are arrogant, smug and conceited. That's Rowan the comedian of course, not Rowan the Archbishop – it would be even worse if it were our own boss who thought so! I wonder what could have made Mr Bean say such things…

Of course there is a priestly desire to pontificate which doesn't always come across well. Sometimes on Thought for the Day a well-meaning vicar feels the urge to lecture us about the latest headlines, oblivious of the political, social and economic experts on the show who know far more about it than he does. "Why doesn't he get off his soap box and tell me about Jesus?" I find myself rebuking the radio. "That's what I need to get me through the day!"

Arrogance is particularly unwelcome in the church because we are supposed to favour humility. It's because of Jesus that Christians think humility is so important. At Christmas Jesus humbled himself. He gave up His glory to become a human being, to seek for us, serve us and save us. He even went to the cross to bear our sins. Just as he humbled himself for us, we have to humble ourselves to receive him. "Lord, I have let you down. I've failed to live how you wanted me to. I've hurt others. I need you. Please come into my life and help me change…" Arrogance is actually bad for you. It stops you learning new things – "I know it all already." It shuts out others – "Who needs them?" It's anti love – "It’s my life and I'll live it my way!"

And humility is not what you think. It doesn't mean crawling, being bland, pretending to be useless when you're not, or denying your worth as a human being. Look at Jesus – he asserted who he was as the Son of God, threw out money changers, confronted authority. Life with him was an adventure! Gentle Jesus, meek and mild? As if! Humility really means being ready to admit when you are wrong, open to others and willing to serve them.

Just like Jesus when he came in humility for us. He came at Christmas – to seek you, serve you and save you. This Christmas could be the start of an amazing adventure if you will ask him in. In the meantime you'll just have to make up your own mind about those arrogant vicars…

After the fire came a still, small voice…

2011-08-16T10:48:00.004+01:00

As I write this article, the country is still reeling from the August riots. Over two thousand looters have already been arrested. Emergency courts are dealing with the surge in cases. Shattered communities are doing their best to clear up the mess and start again. For families who have lost sons and brothers the process will be much longer.

Now that the immediate danger has been dealt with, it is right that we embark on some serious soul searching. How did we bring up a generation who do not know it is wrong to wreck the lives of others for the sake of a bigger TV and some new trainers? Is it our casual rejection of millennia of wisdom about loyal, stable relationships as the best environment for children? Is it the lack of respect for teachers and elders? Or the lack of integrity in our bankers and expenses-guzzling politicians? Is it the rampant commercialism of our age: you are what you consume, so if you haven't got it, go and take it? Is it the shallow, me-too atheism that says we are just animals with no meaning or purpose to life - and then gets all surprised when we start to act like it?

Good questions and I think we should chew them over and take them to heart. We need to be careful how we answer them. Get them wrong and we might end up living through the same nightmare again. For example, those who want to evict every looter's family from their homes and cut off all their benefits will create a feral class who roam the streets with no possible source of income but more robbery…

But I believe in a God who is bigger than the riots, so I believe there are answers. I'd like to tell you about two of them - answers where I believe actions speak louder than words.

Even as the riots first started, we led a children's holiday club called Have I got News for you. 75 young children heard a wonderful message about how much their lives matter because God loves them. I wish you could have been there to see the spontaneity and openness with which they explored the love of God. What a contrast to those who feel their lives are worthless, that they are not wanted by anyone and have nothing to lose.

The second answer came as the riots were at their peak. Some twenty of our young people set out on a summer mission to bless and serve the people of Walsall. They washed cars for free, picked up litter, gave a free barbecue, and ran participative activities in sport, art and music. Their motive? They want to follow Jesus and love their neighbour. What a contrast to the things appearing on our television screens.

We need to rebuild, not just our shops and streets, but our hearts and our values. Start with Jesus, as our amazing young people have done, and you won't go far wrong.

2010-10-16T23:14:00.000+01:00

Reductionism – a parable…
It's my son's birthday. I love my son and I want him to have a really nice present that he will enjoy. So off I go down to Halford's and buy him a nice shiny blue new bicycle.
Come his birthday my son is delighted with it! "It's my present to you son. I love you and that's why I've given you this bike".
A few days later though, my son seems unhappy. He stops using the bike, and he doesn't seem to want to meet my eye either. Finally I get him to talk about it.
"You said you gave me that bike because you loved me. But I've found the receipt – it didn't come from you at all, it came from Halford's – and before that it was made in Taiwan!"
Do we really think that discovering the bike came from Halford's means it can't really be a proper present from me? Then why do we suppose that understanding more about how the universe works means it can't possibly come from God? There isn't any logical connection at all between these statements as far as I can see – have I missed something? And in that case, isn't the whole Dawkins argument really about what drives people to accept one kind of explanation and reject others?

2009-10-01T11:08:00.000+01:00

This is an item I put in the local Pioneer magazine recently - I hope you like it!

A Pearl of Great Price?

In my pocket I carry with me a large white marble. From time to time I take it out and hold it for a moment, or feel its smooth roundness in my pocket. I do it to remind me of certain important things. I do it especially when I'm feeling lonely or misunderstood, or when things aren't going my way. In short, when I'm tempted to feel a bit unloved and a bit down.

The marble reminds me of a story Jesus told - the story of the pearl of great price. There was a merchant, He said, who was a dealer in fine pearls. One day he found one of such exceptional beauty and lustre that he sold all that he had to buy it. On the face of it, Jesus was saying that we ought to value God's presence and love so much that everything else fades by comparison. It's a great message for these cynical times when we seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. It's our fixation with greedy materialism that landed us in recession.

But we can also turn the story round. What if it is not about us searching for God, but God searching for us? Is He the merchant hunting for pearls? If so, it means He gave everything, His best and finest, in order to have us. This is just what the life of Jesus tells us. He came among us so He could lay down His life for us on the cross. He gave everything to have us. We are His pearl of great price.

So that's what my little marble reminds me of. I'm not lonely or unwanted or insignificant or worthless - even when my circumstances or emotions say I am. I am God's pearl, for love of whom He gave everything. Wow.

Sadly I haven't got a real pearl of great price for my reminder - can't afford it! And it's just as well really, because that reminds me I don't have to be anything special for God to love me. Ordinary people, with all their up and downs, are precious to God. So much so that He gave Jesus for them.

Have you found your pearl yet?

with love in Jesus from Colin.

Coming home

2008-07-31T14:54:00.002+01:00

I've been threatening for some time to put my conversion story on to the blog - after all, it is the best thing that's happened to me. At last I've got round to it. A quieter summer period helps, and so did Jeremy, asking for stories to put in a booklet of testimonies so we can all see how God has worked in the lives of people at St Matthew's. Here's what I wrote:

I was a tortured soul as a youth. My parents had moved constantly while I was younger, usually to totally different parts of the country. I went through the experience of losing friends and trying to make new ones so many times that in the end I just gave up - what was the point? I'd soon be saying goodbye again. I became lonely and withdrawn.

I'd always believed there was a God since I first thought about it. I hadn't been brought up with this - my parents didn't take us to church or tell us about their beliefs. But somehow this conviction had taken hold of my life. The difficulty was, I couldn't seem to find this God I believed in. I tried lots of things - Eastern spirituality was in fashion - and thought that if you rolled all the beliefs about God together you be bound to come up with something like the truth in the end. But none of it filled the deep emptiness I felt within. I began to wonder if God didn't want me.

Then my father died very suddenly of a heart attack and things got a great deal worse. I found I had nothing inside to help me care for my mum, who was devastated, nor for my brothers, when they most needed me. We fell apart a bit. God seemed further away than ever. I sank into depression. Life had no meaning or purpose whatever.

Bedtime many months later: as I got ready for bed I prayed, "God, if you're there at all, you can have my life. It's no use to me." I fell asleep immediately, something I had been unable to do for a long time.

The following day I felt a strange urge to get up and go out into the streets. I remembered what I had prayed. "This is a strange urge," I thought, "Could this be God answering my prayer?" So off I went. I bumped into someone who was actually going along to an evening service at my local parish church. It was the last place on earth I'd thought of to go looking for God. But over a period of weeks, as I heard and responded to what I heard there, I came to realise that the way to find God is through Jesus.

I remember the night it finally dawned on me that God really loved me: a warm Devon night in August. I had gone away with the Church Youth for a week's houseparty and a brilliant speaker had seemed to speak straight into my heart. I went out and lay on the grass, looking up at the stars, and finally felt that there was a place for me in the universe.

What about you? If you're at St Matthew's and you have a story of what God has done for you, please let Jeremy have it, and soon! Don't forget they're supposed to be anonymous (sorry about that Jeremy - can a blogging vicar be a special case?)

Colin.

Homelessness Update

2008-07-31T14:45:00.003+01:00

For those who haven't seen the local press in Walsall, this is just to let you know that the papers did indeed take up the story. Several papers carried it on the front page and there was a lively sequence of correspondence in the letters columns. Walsall's Chief Executive came down personally to the Clubbers' ministry in the town centre: the first two visitors he met were themselves homeless. Scrutiny meetings have investigated the issue within the Council and officials do now accept that there are homeless people who are unprovided for in Walsall. Local Housing Associations have also publically pledged to take action on behalf of the homeless.

So you see, you can make a difference if you are prepared to speak out and put some passion into it. Well done all my brothers and sisters at St Matthew's for engaging with this issue so vigorously and to all who signed the petition and supported the homeless in many other ways.

Colin.

Homelessness in Walsall

2008-05-19T12:36:00.002+01:00

It was great to see St Matthew's deep concern for the homeless at our AGM last month. For those who weren't there, the people raised the issue of the homeless at the AGM - we were then trying to help around half a dozen homeless people who were coming to us regularly. We have helped many others in the past. However we all agree that we do not have the resources to do more than scratch the surface. The people who have the resources, and also have a legal duty to do something about it, are Walsall Council: but the Council refuse to acknowledge that there is anyone sleeping rough in Walsall.

So angry was the AGM about this blatant denial that they asked me to get up a petition, which I did. For good measure I circulated it to other Walsall churches. I have now received responses from 13 churches with over 450 signatures. I decided to send a press release to local papers, and here it is - see below. SO far the Advertiser and the Chronicle have expressed interest and are following it up. Let's hope we see an article about this injustice in the papers soon.

The figures shown in the press release are slightly different because more responses have come in since the release was issued.

PRESS RELEASE 15 MAY 2008

Churchgoers Anger leads to Homelessness Petition

Churchgoers in Walsall are providing more and more support to homeless people. They come into services and other meetings: they knock on clergy doors other church premises seeking help - a few sandwiches, a sleeping bag, a train fare, the cost of a cup of tea.

Of course the churches are only too pleased to give what help they can - it goes with the territory. However they are well aware that all they can do is scratch the surface. The real needs of homeless people will only be met by fully resourced professional provision - which basically means Walsall Council.

However the Council's position is that there are NO people sleeping rough in Walsall. This was based on a survey undertaken in December 2006 by officers who were not permitted to enter abandoned factories and boarded up buildings for Health and Safety reasons. But these were the very places the homeless had retreated to during a spell of bitter cold. The result is that, officially, the people who are coming to churches seeking help do not exist!

Churchgoers at St Matthew's, concerned for the homeless, are angry at this act of denial. At their AGM they voted to put together a petition to the Council demanding action. The wording of the petition is:

"We the undersigned are aware that Churches in Walsall are making informal provision for many homeless people. We call upon the Council to abandon its mistaken view that there are no homeless people in Walsall and to make proper provision for their needs."

So far over 300 signatures have been collected from 11 different churches. The petition will be presented to Council Officers shortly.

The Reverend Colin Gibson, vicar of St Matthew's, says:

"The lack of provision for homeless people in Walsall is a scandal. People are right to be angry about it! The Council should think again about the homeless and take action now."

Ok, so the Times isn't listening...

2008-04-08T16:40:00.002+01:00

I've got annoyed with the Times again, especially with their commentator Matthew Parris, who clearly hates God and has it in for Christians. Every time he writes on this subject he tries to put across to the public that faith equals foaming at the mouth fanaticism. Well, the Christians I know just aren't like that. Most of them seem fairly sane and committed to loving their neighbours, not blowing them up!

Tony Blair's recent speech on the role of faith in political life gave Mr Parris a field day for his prejudices, so I wrote in to the Editor. Of course I know they won't bother with my letter, so I'm posting it up here instead...

... not that I agree with Tony Blair about lots of things. Iraq for example. The problem here isn't that Tony Blair was too Christian but rather that he wasn't Christian enough. Love your neighbour, for example, means war must be a last resort, not a first resort, and as for the lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction...

But in spite of Mr Blair's example, Christianity has had a superb track record in changing the lot of mankind for the better. But now I'm going over my letter in advance. Why not just read it.

Sir, I don't recognise the Christianity so disgracefully caricatured by Matthew Parris in his comments on Saturday 5 April. Jesus commanded his followers to love their neighbours, to show compassion, to offer practical help, to forgive, to avoid judging others. If this is fanaticism, the world needs a lot more of it.

We don't always live up to our Master's teachings, but it is because we have too little Christianity, not too much. As Jonathan Swift wrote, we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, one another.

Christians have such a lot to offer in the public arena, as the lives of Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, William Wilberforce, William Gladstone, the Earl of Shaftesbury, General Booth, the founders of Oxfam, The Samaritans and many other agencies that improve the lives of countless people all demonstrate. Frankly, I don't think secularism has nearly such a good track record, probably because atheists don't have the same values and motivation. If Mr Parris, who clearly has his own fanaticism, ever got his wish to see Christianity stamped out of public life, it would be a very very sad blow against the wellbeing of the human race.

Colin Gibson.

Sounding Off

2007-10-30T13:10:00.000Z

It's been a while since I last blogged - things got busy for a bit and then I went off for a break. So I hope you haven't given up looking at the blog from time to time.

Actually I'm using the blog to paste up a letter I just wrote to The Times. Their correspondent decided to sound off against Christian magistrates, doctors, foster parents and adoption agencies who opt out of cases where their ethical beliefs would be compromised. Her proposal was that Christians should simply be banned from holding any such posts. I hope you agree with me that the exclusion of christianity from public life in this way would be an extremely worrying development.

Anyway, here's my letter. I doubt The Times will print it but at least someone can read it now. Please let me know what you think.

"Sir,

Should we decide ethical issues by majority, as your correspondent Carol Sarler opines in Monday's Thunderer Article? Hitler famously won a majority while Jesus Christ was rejected by the people of his day. I know whose ethics I prefer!

The tendency of the article was to support the elimination of Christians from public office because of their stance on family issues, sexuality and abortion. This is deplorable. Christian ethical vision underlies many of the most significant social developments in our culture: Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade, Shaftesbury and the Factory Acts, Gladstone and the Reform Acts, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Third World Relief, Drop the Debt... Christian passion and conviction has constantly renewed our society and has improved the lives of millions of people, often in the teeth of bitter opposition from the majority. We should not allow this the main stream of our moral heritage to be extirpated from civic life without serious prior reflection.

The Reverend Colin Gibson
Walsall"

A love letter from Jesus?

2007-10-10T14:46:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday was Paula's priesting here at St Matthew's, along with Sue, Liz and Rob. We had a very splendid service with a bishop and archdeacon, processions here and there and more vicars than you can shake a stick at. The bishop asked me to preach, so I chose 2 Corinthians 3:1-6, which is about being a living letter from Jesus.

Afterwards someone was kind enough to ask for a copy of the sermon, so I promised to put it on the blog. Here it is!

A nervous young vicar was wandering around his new parish, feeling slightly self-conscious in his shiny clerical collar. He saw an old gaffer working in his garden and decided he ought to do his part to spread the word.
"Good morning!" he called. "You and the Lord together have made a beautiful job of that garden!"
"You're right, vicar," said the old gaffer, "But you should have seen it when He had it on His own!"

Ever since God gave the task of ruling and nurturing the world to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1 He has chosen to work through us human beings. Supremely He has done this through the Son of Man, who is the ultimate expression of His purposes in human form; and since Jesus ascended into heaven He continues to use us His people to communicate with His world.

But how can we be an effective communication? Communication is a dark art, fraught with difficulties and misunderstandings: like the young man who decided to say it with flowers:

A young man was very much in love with a beautiful girl. One day she told him that the next day was her birthday. He told her he would send her a bouquet of roses, one for each year of her life.
That evening he called the local florist and ordered twenty-one roses with instructions that they be delivered first thing the next morning. As the florist was preparing the order, she decided that since the young man was such a good customer, she would put an extra dozen roses in the bouquet...
He never did find out why the girl never spoke to him again.

Today's reading describes that communication as a living letter, written on human hearts (v.3), known and read by everybody (v.2). How can we be a letter from Jesus more effectively? 3 ways:-

1. be a love letter.
• above all the message of Jesus is a message of love: "God so loved the world..." If people don't see God's love in us then we are not an authentic letter from Jesus because we are not conveying his message.
• My biggest mistakes in ministry have been when I've become too absorbed in tasks and not given enough time to people. If people can't see God's love in us we have lost the plot. But it's so easy when you sit down in front of your to do list.
• in 1907 there were around 50k clergy serving a population of some 40m. in 2007 there are not much over 10k clergy serving 60m. Of course we're hard pressed...
• but let's see people who come to us not as interruptions but as messengers from God, reminding us to re-prioritise. The rotas and timetables and agendas and meetings and reports and returns are not the most important things. People need to know you love them!
• Not only that, but if we are not a love letter, nobody will want to read us. People are fed up of reading of a church that is judgmental, stuffy, that fudges everything, hypocritical and inward-looking. People are crying out for an authentic spirituality: for Christians, that means love.
• Above all, give people time - a precious gift in an over busy age - as Jesus did.

2. be human
• God's ultimate communication was not through the prophets or written laws. It was through a human being - "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Jesus was not afraid to be vulnerable - hungry, thirsty, tired, angry, sad, happy, suffering, tempted - and nor should we.
• Our humanity is therefore not an obstruction to God's work in our lives, but the very vehicle and living channel of it - because that's how it was for Jesus. Our humanity is God's gift!
• Christian testimony is not "look at me, I'm perfect!" - that's the testimony of the Pharisees. Christian testimony says, "I'm fallen - but I have somebody with me who keeps on picking me up"
• So don't keep up a front! People aren't helped by that. They feel, "I can't live up to that" and they go away discouraged. That's the letter that kills, v.6.

3. hand written
• No word processors for Paul! everything was written by hand. In the same way, we, God's letter to the world, need to have His fingerprints all over us.
• The Holy Spirit's role is absolutely essential - v.3: vital to keep the channel of communication with God wide open! Even the apostle Paul couldn't do it on his own, v.5: how much less can we. We simply must have the Spirit for thi ministry, v.6.
• The Spirit should be writing the story of our lives, shaping our attitudes, outlook, values, vision, relationships... Footballers have ghost writers to help them tell their story and we need a Holy Ghost writer to work with uson the story of our lives.
• That's why we pray for the Spirit's anointing at a priesting - and at confirmations...

Conclusion
• ... you see this isn't just about Paula, Liz, Sue and Rob, with me as the grizzled old veteran addressing the rookies and telling them how to do it. For one thing, Paula, Liz, Sue and Rob already have loads of experience!
• This is about everyone here! Letter addressed to everyone in the church at Corinth.
• Some have special roles, like our new priests - to help prepare the letter (v.3). But we all together are that letter.

So what kind of letter are you?
- A love letter?
- is your humanity showing?
- are you handwritten by the Spirit?
What do people read when they look into your life?

Young people of today...

2007-09-13T22:14:00.000+01:00

What a fantastic weekend! A bunch of young people from Church Hill Praise / Queen Mary's Joint Christian Union spent last weekend washing cars (including mine), picking up litter, doing up people's gardens - and they appeared to enjoy every minute of it! They also offered a free barbecue to all comers and rounded off with a brilliant evening of praise and testimony in the St Matthew's Community Centre.

Why? Because that's how they feel they should serve Jesus, who loved us and washed his disciples feet. That's how they wanted to reach out to other people, not by hitting them first with the message, but by warming them first with practical love. It worked for one lady in her 80s, who responded to the praise night by telling us that it was the best night of her life!

It was hard to disagree with her. You could feel the warmth and joy coming off these young people, and see it in the way they treated each other. It is such a privilege to have so many passionate, enthusiastic and caring young people coming to our church - thank you so much! And it wasn't as if they made some great duty out of it. They were all having fun.

Jesus said, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." I think our young people demonstrated that last weekend. And I think some of our older people, myself included, may need to learn it all over again from them.

2007-09-11T11:26:00.000+01:00

Rootless?

I've always felt like rather a rootless person. My dad was a Scot who left his roots and came to England: my mother was born in India in the days of the Raj and had to leave in 1947. Before I was born they had moved several times and they carried on doing so as I grew up, together with my brothers, Ian, Andrew and Douglas. At first it was because Dad was in the army. I remember a lovely spell in Cyprus when he was posted there. After he left the Army our moves continued, because of work and the housing market.

I think the crunch came when I was 13 and we had what turned out to be the last move for some years, to Kent. I had reached the age where the childish innocence that does not look too far ahead was no longer available to me. I knew that I would never see the friends I had made in our last place again. I gave up trying to make new friends. What was the point? I would only lose them again. I became miserable and withdrawn. I failed to appreciate the good points of my travels - that I had met lots of people and lived in lots of places that I would never have seen if I had stayed in the same town all my life.

This sense of loneliness and emptiness had a lot to do with my conversion - but I'll do another entry about that. Finding that God loved me was a great healer for my personality and helped me to open up to other people in new ways. I'll never be a Graham Norton or a Muhammad Ali (thank goodness!) but at least I'm not permanently stuck in wallflower mode. However when God called me to be a vicar I knew I would be facing more moves, more farewells and more heartache. I sometimes look with envy at communities like Walsall, where many people have known one another all their lives and have deep friendships going back to childhood.

So it was one of the highlights of my year to meet up with some old university friends recently. I suppose my sense of the inevitability of the loss of friends had influenced me not to keep in touch with them as I could easily have done. Sometimes we collude with our own negative attitudes and turn them into self-fulfilling prophecies. So thank God for Chris, who put the energy in and brought us all together: Chris, Simon, Max, Jon and myself. I was the most centrally located, so we all had lunch at my place and a wonderful time of catching up.

For we were The Five - a bunch of Christians who were all poets! We'd even managed to publish a small anthology. We soon discovered that our main inspiration came from unrequited love, so we took a vow that if any of us got engaged we would be ceremonially dumped in the River Cam by the others. I'm pleased to say I've escaped so far - Weil's and who knows what other diseases lurk that way. I did however receive, soon after meeting Elisa, an envelope marked "Warning! Contains 10,000 gallons of dehydrated Cam water". Anyway, we're all married now, so the only thing to do would be to all jump in together.

Although we have all been marked and changed in various ways by life's experiences, it was such a golden time to be together. We worked out that we were within a few days of our 30th anniversary of leaving university and splitting up. I can't tell you how our reunion has lifted me. "I have got friendships going back 30 years! I'm not so different from the people around me who have roots - I have a rootlet or five myself!" And of course we're going to meet again very soon, and make it a regular event, and re-explore those roots.

Ultimately we all share a longing for roots. This longing reflects our needs for identity and security. We sometimes look for roots in places - that's why we slap preservation orders on them - and sometimes on churches - that's why society wants them to be museums instead of living, worshipping communities. We're on stronger ground when we look for them in relationships with others. But even those relationships cannot last forever.
My dear and rediscovered friends have all been marked by the experiences that have altered us, and we are all reaching an age where we cannot help being aware of our mortality. The sad thing is that we have no lasting roots while we are on this planet.

I think our desire for roots ultimately points us towards our need to be rooted in the love of God, the only place where they can really last. A beautiful verse from the Bible says, "God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men - yet they cannot fathom what He has done." Here are both the reality of the roots and the longing to find them, the temporaneity and the eternity. As another passage says, we are aliens and strangers on the earth, nomads longing for a better country, our heavenly home in God's love.

Meanwhile, what of The Five? We're all still writing so we are starting to work up another little anthology. It probably won't be the publishing sensation of 2008, but that's not the point. Here's one of my contributions - interestingly enough it's about being rooted, pictured in a forest, but gradually withdrawing from outward roots to focus more and more on inward roots in the love of God. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any thoughts about it, please post them on the blog.

Ashburnham Woods

Nothing hurts the eye's peace
But a leaf's small trembling:
Only the tree-dew dropping
Plops in the ear's stillness:
Here in this small pause
Life's million wars upon the heart
Let lapse away, release
The grip kept tight about the soul,
That she too may enter on peace.

Now is the pure moment
Of my unquiet residence
In this two yards of clay,
You and I as all:
I in my swamp of hope,
Memory and desire, You
In the pure circle of eternity
And Your circle touches me
And the word of Your touch is love.

The Lost Pawn

2007-08-30T22:37:00.000+01:00

This is a story about answered prayer. It's a bit of a roundabout story because it starts with my brother-in-law, Antti. I suppose my kids must be among a very tiny elite of English children who have an uncle called Antti, but my wife and therefore my in-laws are all Finnish. Antti is the Finnish equivalent of Andy, and Antti is handy: he is very good at woodwork and carpentry of all descriptions and frequently takes commissions from friends and neighbours.

This summer we drove into Antti's place to discover that he had built a tower in his yard - a great big wooden thing with a ladder up the side and a platform on top. But what on earth was it for? It turned out that a neighbour had asked him to build a hunting tower for him. You put it in the forest near a trail and you are up out of sight among the leaves when an unsuspecting elk comes wandering by.... It was awaiting dismantling to be moved to the neighbour's house. Crucially, it had been waiting quite a while, and long grass and thick weeds had grown up around its base.

The next factor in the story is our youngest, Ben. There had been one or two dull spots on holiday, when it had been raining and all the TV channels were in Finnish. So Ben had borrowed his cousin Vilma's chess set and become very keen on chess. He brought the set with him on our visit to Antti's. When the grown-up conversation became a bit too boring, he went to look for a nice place to play a quiet game of chess with himself. You may have already guessed where. Who would think that the top of a hunting tower could be so perfect?

And the inevitable happened. One of the pawns fell off the board, slipped between the planks of the platform and disappeared into the weeds below. Of course we had to find it. It wasn't our chess set, and it would be useless to Vilma with one piece missing. So we searched and searched. Antti even got the scythe out and hacked at the weeds. Someone suggested dropping another pawn and seeing where that went - we didn't take up the suggestion.

After half an hour we could tell we weren't getting anywhere. As a last, desperate measure (why do we always try God last?) I decided we needed to pray. We stopped for a moment of quiet. "Lord," I said, "we don't know where that pawn is. But you know everything, and you know exactly where it is. Please show us where to look. Amen." Within about 30 seconds, there was the pawn, sitting in a spot we'd combed through several times before!

Well, what to make of that? I've prayed quite a few big prayers in my time that seemed to me to be quite important. Why had God answered that little prayer about a much more trivial matter and apparently ignored the big stuff? Here are my thoughts so far:
- It provided a timely witness to Antti that God answers prayer.
- It boosted my faith. Even though there are other prayers God hasn't answered (or at least hasn't answered yet), He still has the power to answer prayer, He knows our situation as exactly as He knew where that pawn was, and cares about us enough to help. In other words, we can trust Him even when the answers aren't so apparent.
- Are any prayers "big" prayers for God? After all, if you are the infinite Creator of everything, then actually everything on the planet is small beer by comparison.
- A God who knows where all the lost pawns and other bits and pieces in the world are is not a trivial God. He must be an amazingly huge God to keep track of everything.

I wonder what you think? Post a message below and let me know! And remember, don't play chess on top of an elk-tower...